The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-11-23
A Couple of Columns Devoted to
the Fair Daughters
of Eve.
Embracing Few Seasonable Hints About
the Latest Styles in
Dress.
New York correspondence

The music OF the first waltZes and
cotilions will soon sound in the ears of
our fashionable bellies and beaux, and
already the women have their costumes
ready for the opening occasions. The
first picture shows the outlines that
prevail generally for bodices and
tournures in evening dresses. 1t will
be seen that sleeves are lacking and
that the corsage opening is nearly OF
the same slope as it was last winter.
How about fabrics" was asked of a
masculine designer of feminine gowns.
summer revels," he grandiloquently re-
piled, "they give their minds seriously
to the consideration of materials for
ball dresses. The looms of Queen Nab
are put into requisition, the old spi.
ders are taken into council, and the
fairies reproduce all the lovely effects
they have seen during the summer and
weave them into dreams of beauty.
They take their colors from the dying
flowers, their beads from strings of
dewdrops which hang on the spiders
web in the early morning All these
lovely things they weave together, and
the consequence is the production of
exquisite fabrics, dear to the heart of
woman and destructive to the peace of
man."
Extravagant language is almost JUS
titiable in describing the tissues put
into elaborate ball costumes. Nothing
short of magic can have produced those
embroidered tulles, covered with deli
cate webs of silver, like the finger of
Jack Frost upon the window pane.
Whose but fairy fingers could have
produced this wonderful white net COW
cred with spiders web in silver or
gold, or panel of purple orchids grow
ing in a golden trellis? How else are
we to account for the existence of this
filmy net covered with silvery tracery
and hung with crystal or iridescent
pendants, this pink net like sunset
cloud lit up with pendants of flame
But over this metallic embroidery they
must surely have exhausted their pow
ers, for nothing so fine has been pro-
duced from fairy looms before. They
have taken a piece of white net and
embroidered it with deep border and
tiny sprigs of pale shiny flowers. The
colors are those faint blues and pinks
and lilacs which we have got to associ-
ate with the days of Louis XIV, and
even O small panel of this exquisite
fabric would exalt the plainest dress
into thing of beauty.
There are few things more difficult
than the choice of evening gowns, said
the expert already quoted. "a morn
ing dress is an ordinary affair, and can
be easily settled off-hand; but an even
ing dress requires a certain amount OF
thought, for if it is not tasteful it is
nothing. Very often girl sits at home
and imagines q ball dress in her own
mind, but feels deeply disappointed
with it when it is carried out. When she
enters the ballroom she sees hundred
dresses she would have preferred to her
own, had she only known beforehand
what materials were in the fashion.
Every season the manufacture Of these
fabrics advances, and the designers
produce more beautiful effects. The
temptation is toward eccentricity in
making up these things. But if you
wish to illustrate a couple of toilets
that will be becoming to any girls, that
will be strictly true TO fashions man
dates, and may serve as models TO copy
from, here they are."
The dresses are shown in the third
picture.
1t is going to be simply delightful fol